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Leigh Pilzer

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Artist Bio

Saxophonist/arranger Leigh Pilzer has performed at many of Washington, DC’s top jazz venues, including Blues Alley, Twins Jazz, Westminster Presbyterian, the Atlas Performing Arts Center, Jazz at the Garden, The Mansion at Strathmore, and the Takoma Park JazzFest, among others.

Leigh is a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, DIVA, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, and Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes. With SJMO, DIVA, and the National Symphony Orchestra she has toured across the United States and in Austria, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Holland, and Russia. She also freelances with a variety of ensembles in the mid-Atlantic region.

Leigh’s arrangements have been performed by the DC-area premier military jazz ensembles and by college and professional jazz ensembles and brass quintets throughout the country. DIVA has recorded several of Leigh’s big band arrangements: two can be heard on DIVA’s most recent CD, A Swingin’ Life (2014) and two more are included on the band’s first all-original release Special Kay (2016). Another was featured on the soundtrack for Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular (2014). Other arranging credits include large and small ensemble originals and arrangements on Introducing…, It Don’t Mean a Thing, and Bullettes and Friends by Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes; horn section writing for recordings by Chuck Brown and Eva Cassidy; and orchestrations for the critically acclaimed show Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life.

Leigh holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Composition and Arranging from the Berklee College of Music and Master’s degrees in Jazz Studies and Saxophone Performance from The University of Maryland, College Park. After completing her academic work at Maryland she enrolled in the PhD program in Musicology with a major in Music Theory at The Catholic University of America. She later transferred to George Mason University where she is currently working on a DMA and is a recipient of the merit-based Presidential Scholarship. Leigh has served on the faculties of the University of Maryland and Towson University, where she has taught Jazz Theory, Jazz Arranging, and Jazz History.

Leigh’s debut CD Strunkin’, recorded live at the Washington Women in Jazz Festival in March 2016, was released on October 21, 2016.

About DCJF

Since 2005, the DC Jazz Festival organization has provided enriching and entertaining jazz performances and programs that introduce students and adults from all walks of life to jazz, our nation’s singular original art form.